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Sociolinguistics from the Periphery "presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users."

This updated and expanded version of Wolfram and Christian's (1989)collaboration, "Dialects and Education," is (continues to be) awonderful resource for teachers or would-be teachers (particularlyteachers of English or language arts, although the importance oflanguage issues in the teaching of other materials is briefly touchedupon). "No previous background in linguistics or sociolinguistics isassumed on the part of the reader" (ix) in fact, readers with suchbackground may well find themselves frustrated at the very basicdefinitions, the limited discussion of theoretical issues, the lack ofdebate in general. Information about what dialects are, where they comefrom, how they are evaluated, etc. is presented as factual anduncontroversial. The discussion is narrowly focused on social andregional dialects, ignoring other approaches to interspeaker variation(e.g., social network theory, as adapted by Leslie Milroy (1980)), morequantitative research on dialect differences (e.g., Labov (1989), andother kinds of variation which may interact with dialect (e.g., genderdifferences). For educators who may be less interested in theoreticaldebates and more interested in specific classroom applications, thisbook will surely prove enlightening, either by itself or as a companionvolume to Wolfram's recent collaboration with Natalie Schilling-Estes,"American English" (1998, Blackwell; an updated version of Wolfram'sclassic "Dialects and American English," reviewed by Paul Watters forthe Linguist List, volume 9.1085).

Like its predecessor, this volume moves from a definition and discussionof dialects in chapters 1 and 2, "Language Variation in the UnitedStates" and "Exploring Dialects," to more applied concerns. Theseopening chapters are essentially unchanged from the earlier volume,incorporating no new research or references in the text. The only newmaterial in Chapter 1 was the inclusion of LSA's 1997 Oakland EbonicsResolution (pp. 21-22; box 1.1) and a reprint of a 1993 Wolfram articleon dialect prejudice for the Alumni Magazine of North Carolina as wellas a response to that article. Chapter 2 contains a somewhat expandeddiscussion of African American Vernacular English (the term of choice inthis volume; the old edition referred to "vernacular Black English"),and a different language sample to reflect this dialect (longer than theexample in the previous volume, and more politically correct). Thelanguage samples (an interview with an eleven-year-old African Americanfrom Baltimore, and an Appalachian ghost story from "an elderly White"woman from southern West Virginia) are particularly well-presented, withannotated transcripts, and separate discussions of pronunciation andgrammatical differences. The somewhat lengthy section on "variation inlinguistic systems" in this chapter is entirely redundant with theappendix; this reader could see no reason for this repetition.

Instead of the old question-and-answer format, this edition has sectionheaders to guide the reader, and shaded boxes to highlight selectedmaterial a trivial difference, yet one that this reader found helpful.The "Further Study" sections at the end of each chapter have beenupdated and contain a handful of well-chosen sources for each chapter,including books, journals, and occasionally, films. Not justbibliographies, these lists are carefully annotated for maximal utilityto the reader. A wealth of further references are available in the newreference section added to the end of the book. It is unfortunate thatthe many resources available on the Internet were not exploited in thisedition (the book contains only one URL). Although websites come and gorather quickly, many teachers are eager to incorporate the new mediuminto their classroom activities (and many students are receptive to thisstrategy); a listing of resources for this would be helpful.

As previously mentioned, the "theory" presented here is very basic."Dialect" is defined only as "a variety of a language associated with aregionally or socially defined group of people" (p.1). "StandardEnglish" ... "is a collection of the socially preferred dialects fromvarious parts of the United States and other English-speaking countries"(p. 17). It is acknowledged that different varieties are valueddifferently in society, and it is implied in the text that there may besome rewards for speaking a nonstandard variety in certain situations.(E.g. (p. 15), "Presumably, this nonstandard form was used to evoke asense of toughness and resiliency, characteristic connotations ofvernacular dialect forms.") This discussion, however, is too brief andsketchy to be of much use. There is no overt mention made in this textof covert prestige (Trudgill 1972), and the notion of hypercorrection isnot introduced until Chapter 6, where it is discussed only inrelationship to writing. Since this book does not provide alternateframeworks for studying linguistic variation, it would be nice if therewere a "Further Study" list to steer interested readers to texts whichwould provide such information.

The third chapter, "Communicative Interaction," provides the transitionfrom theory to more applied concerns, moving from a general look at"Cultures and Dialects" to a discussion of "Cultural Styles in theClassroom." This chapter is new to this edition, and proves to be aparticularly exciting addition. In addition to the sections mentionedabove, this chapter also covers conversational politeness (followingBrown & Levinson 1987), Grice's (1975) conversational maxims, and Hymes'(1974) SPEAKING mnemonic to capture details of context. The section on"Researching Classroom Interaction" is especially specific andpractical. Box 3.3 "Checklist for Language Use in Classrooms" (pp.95-97) details all the speech acts that one might encounter in aclassroom. Labov's seminal 1969 article on "the Logic of Non-StandardEnglish" is excerpted in Box 3.2 (pp. 85-87), whereas the previousedition merely recommended it for further study. It would be a pity,however, if these excerpts were all these readers encountered of thisarticle; anyone with a serious interest in these topics should reallyread it in full.

Chapters 4 and 5 both give a good deal of consideration to the notion of"Standard American English." Chapter 4, "Language Difference Does NotMean Deficit," looks at persistent myths of language decline or decay,and updates the earlier discussion of this with new numbers from SATscores through the early 1990s. The notions of "difference" and"deficit" (and the distinction between the two) introduced in the firstchapter are reprised here, but this topic is emphasized much less thanit was in Wolfram and Christian (1989), which devoted an entire chapterto speech and language disorders. In addition to the College Compositionand Communication Conference's 1974 statement of students' dialectrights, the 1997 AAAL resolution is also included. Chapter 5, "OralLanguage Instruction," carries this discussion to its logical conclusionof implications for curriculum development. Despite its title, thischapter offers very little advice to the teacher grappling with dialectdifferences and oral language instruction, focusing more on the level ofeducational policy rather than practice. Certain types of classroomactivities are mentioned (e.g., dramatization and role play, repetitionand structural drills), but no real-life examples are given.

Chapters 6 and 7, "Dialects and Written Language" and "LanguageVariation and Reading," in contrast, both offer useful tips forteachers. Chapter 6 argues effectively that all students, regardless ofdialect, have to make a transition between spoken language and writtenlanguage, and offers a taxonomy of "areas of vernacular influence inwriting," along with suggestions for dealing with these. Chapter 7offers sections on "Influences of Dialect Differences on Reading: WhatTeachers Need to Know" and "Instructional Methods." It is, perhaps,greedy to wish that every chapter contained analogous sections; theyare, however, the strongest sections in this text, and it is hoped thatthis feature will be expanded in future editions. The InstructionalMethods section gives specific examples from the curriculum developedfor use with the Ocracoke dialect speakers, a project with which Wolframhas been involved for some time. Although the existence of dialectreaders is mentioned in passing, much more attention could have beengiven to this approach and the controversy surrounding this methodology.It is more confusing than helpful to note that "linguist John Rickfordand educator Angela Rickford contended that it was a mistake to discarddialect readers" (p.155) without going into any detail about thefindings of their research (Rickford and Rickford 1995).

While the vast majority of the book focuses on what the teacher needs toknow about dialect in order to be effective in the classroom, the finalchapter, "Dialect Awareness for Students," offers strategies for makingstudents aware of the issues discussed throughout this book. There is avariety of specific examples of classroom activities some suitable foruse with all populations, others targeted at speakers of particulardialects, covering dialect issues in general, Southern pronunciations,African-American Vernacular English, Appalachian English, and theOcracoke dialect. The wealth of examples (13 pages) from the Ocracokecurriculum contained in Chapters 7 and 8 is both a strength and aweakness of this text: we see at length the different ways a particulardialect can be exploited; unfortunately, the dialect selected is onethat most of us are unlikely to ever encounter. (The Ocracoke Audioexercises are not particularly helpful without the tape which presumablyis intended to accompany them.)

The reference materials at the back of the book include an "Appendix: ASelective Inventory of Vernacular Structures," a reference section, anauthor index, and a subject index. The references and author index arenew to this edition, and very helpful. The subject index is not ascomprehensive as one might hope. (For instance, there is no entry forOcracoke, even though this dialect is discussed at several differentpoints throughout the text. "Testing" is included, but there is no entryfor "assessment.") The Appendix has been slightly expanded from the oldedition with certain features renamed ("expletive it/they" is now termed"existential it/they," "verb subclass shifts" are now labeled"co-occurrence relations and meaning changes"), and a few points added(a brief overview of ongoing vowel mergers, mention of the "perfectivebe," "fixin' to" as a special helping verb form, and the use of thehistorical present.)

It is somewhat disappointing that this new edition does not contain morefacts about current classroom strategies. The discussion is consistentlyinteresting and relevant, but it is often unsupported. The reader isleft wondering exactly who is doing exactly what with dialects in theclassroom nowadays. One might expect that a book with this title wouldinclude more information about the 1979 Ann Arbor decision and the morerecent Oakland Ebonics controversy (both of which are dealt with inpassing). The sections on testing and assessment would be far moreeffective if more data were presented to justify the generalizationsbeing made. This book, however, does serve as an excellent introductionto these topics, particularly for would-be educators who may have noprevious background in linguistics and who should not remain ignorant ofthese issues.

ReferencesBrown, Penelope and Steven Levinson. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. New York: Cambridge University Press.Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole and J.L. Morgan (Eds.), Speech Acts, 41-58. New York: Academic Press.Hymes, Dell. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Labov, William. (1969). The Logic of Nonstandard English. In J. Alatis (Ed.), Linguistics and the Teaching of Standard English to Speakers of Other Languages and Dialects (Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics No 22). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Labov, William. (1989). The Exact Description of the Speech Community: Short a in Philadelphia. In R. Fasold and D. Schiffrin (Eds.), Language Change and Variation, 1-57. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Milroy, Leslie. (1980). Language and Social Networks. Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell. Rickford, John and Angela Rickford. (1995). Dialect Readers Revisited. Language and Education 7: 107-128.Trudgill, Peter. (1972). Sex, Covert Prestige, and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society 1-2:179-196.Wolfram, Walt and Christian, Donna. (1989). Dialects and Education: Issues and Answers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.Wolfram, Walt and Schilling-Estes. (1998). American English. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Mary Shapiro is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Truman StateUniversity in Kirksville, MO. In addition to general linguisticscourses, she teaches a Topics in Sociolinguistics course and a coursecalled "Language and Learning."